Take 2…
Cecil was wondering whether we have just created “the perfect opening for an oil-rich anti-western Iran-Iraq alliance”. I happen to think the two countries will become very tight, and posted a line about the Anschluss of the Mullahs on my blog.
My friend Mark Lew, who knows more about world politics and history than anyone else I know personally, says a full alliance of Iran and Iraq is unlikely. He posted a comment to my “Anschluss” post sketching why, and he has analyzed this in more depth on his own blog; specific post is here.
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One response to “Iran-Iraq: maybe, maybe not”
Cecil’s orginal point was that the election “we” engineered is likely to result in a regime more or less hostile to US interests, and that still seems likely even with a limited alliance between Shia Iraq and Shia Iran. Mark also says:
“A mutual defense pact is plausible. A safer prediction, I think, is that common interests will lead to rapprochement and gradually increasing political and economic alignment — essentially what we’re seeing between Europe and China right now, and for roughly the same reason (ie, common opposition to American hegemony).”